Profiles: Luz Helena Cárdenas | Proimágenes Colombia

Luz Helena Cardenas, known in the industry as “La Flaca”, is one of the most popular costume designers in the audiovisual sector in the country. His career includes titles such as Somos Calentura by Jorge Navas with which he won a nomination in the 2019 Macondo Awards, international productions such as Isa TK by Nickelodeon, as well as a broad number of theatrical and commercial plays.

She was born on November 7 in the city of Bogota. Her training began at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University where she studied industrial design and later textile design at the Colombian Expression Research Institute - I.D.E.C. After her studies she began her career as a Fashion Designer in a collective called “Locomodo”, which was on the market for a little more than 6 years in the nineties. As a costume designer she has worked in theater, television, commercials, print advertising, protocols with production companies in the country, product campaigns, and premiered in the cinema in 2002.
 
She was costume assistant to designer Rosario Lozano in Rodrigo Triana's film Como el Gato y el Ratón (2002). Later she was served as head of the department in the feature films Bolívar soy yo (2002) by Jorge Ali Triana; El Carro (2003) by Lucho Orjuela; Rosario Tijeras (2005) by Emilio Maille, in which she was part of the art team; Satanas (2007) by Andrés Baiz; Perro Come Perro (2008) by Carlos Moreno; Chance (2010) by Abner Benaim in co-production with Panama and Mexico; La Sangre y la Lluvia (2009) by Jorge Navas; La Captura (2012) by Dago García; Somos Calentura (2018) by Jorge Navas; and Amigo de Nadie (2019) by Luis Alberto Restrepo.
 
On television she has been in charge of costume design in the children's story Un Angel Llamado Azul (2003) by Rodolfo Hoyos; Lorena (2005) and Juan Joyita (2002) by Rodrigo Triana; Merlina (2006) by Pepe Sánchez, all productions by RCN Television. Isa TK (2009) by Arturo Manuit with Teleset - RCN; Tres Milagros (2010-2011) by Rodrigo Lalinde with Teleset - RCN; Factor XS (2011) by Teleset - RCN in which she was an image consultant for the senior category; Colombia Tiene Talento by Teleset, in which she was an advisor to participants’ costumes; Tres Caínes (2012-2013) of RTI Television for RCN; Yo soy Frank (2015) of Televideo for Nickelodeon; La Gloria de Lucho (2017) by Olga Lucía Botero with Teleset for Caracol Television and in La Venganza de Analía by Camilo Vega, with CMO Producciones for Caracol Television.
 
In the world of theater she has worked in costume design in Doña Flor y sus dos Maridos (2009) for the Arlequin Theatre; Enséñame a Vivir and Death of a Traveler (2008) by Jorge Ali Triana and Un tranvía llamado deseo of Fabio Rubiano for the National Theatre; IDARTES Christmas (2014); Pacambo (2015) and Circles and Fictions (2016-2017) by Fabiana Medina; La Maleta by Jorge Navas; La Nona by José Luis Rugeles; Days of Radio (2018) by Laura Villegas for the Teatro La Castellana and finally Woizek (2019) by Jimmy Rangel for the Teatro Colón.
 
In advertising, she has designed costumes for campaigns of brands such as Axe, Coca Cola, Marlboro, American Express, Renault, Cerveza Brava, Ron Santafé, Jhonson & Jhonson, among others, with photographers such as Carlos Duque, Raúl Higuera, Sergio Bartelsman, Felipe Londoño, Carlos Gaviria, Jorge Pizarro and Esteban Sosnitsky, to mention some. She has also performed this work in several commercials for American Express, Davivienda, Campi, ETB, Comcel, with directors such as Jorge Navas, Carlos Moreno and Alessandro Angle during the last few years.